We live, simultaneously, in two different worlds. Ultimately, we live in the World of Nature, a world that we did not create and the world upon which all life depends. Most immediately, we inhabit a "human world" that we create ourselves. Because our human world is the result of our own choices and actions, we can say, quite properly, that we live, most immediately, in a “political world.” In this blog, I hope to explore the interaction of these two worlds that we call home.

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Gary A. Patton

I was an elected official in Santa Cruz County, California for twenty years, from 1975 to 1995. Now, I am an environmental attorney, practicing law in Santa Cruz County. If you would like to contact me, send me an email at gapatton@mac.com.

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Sunday, November 19, 2017

#323 / Another Picture Worth 1,000 Words

The image above graced the top of the Opinion page in the November 17, 2017, edition of The New York Times. It depicts Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, showing off the first press run of money with Mnuchin's name on it.

Reading the message conveyed by the picture, these exemplars of the extremely rich are telling the American people, "your money belongs to us." This isn't just a "symbolic" statement, either. As The Times' editorial accurately reported, commenting on the tax "reform" bill that is currently progressing at breakneck speed through the Congress, a bill strongly supported by Mr. Mnuchin and his boss, the President of the United States:

This bill would take money from working families and give it to the world's wealthiest people.

If it's "our" government (and I mean if our government actually belongs to those not in the "billionaire class"), then we need to take back power from the billionaires.

The message we need to remember is exactly the same message that Mnuchin and his wife articulate: "Your money belongs to us." More accurately, "Our money belongs to us!"

Wealth is collectively created. A government of, by, and for "the people," can decide how to raise and spend money, and if the disproportionally rich have seized governmental control, diverting the collective wealth of society to themselves, then we (the non-rich, ordinary folks) need to regain control, and realign the paradigm.

No guns or violence needed. Just inflamed, energized, and engaged voters.

The Times says this picture shows these representatives of the current administration as "cartoonishly evil." A column in The Washington Post says they look like "a pair of Hollywood villains."

Frankly, these folks don't just "look like" villains. They're the real thing. And whether we like it or not, the James Bond role falls to us!